Steele Partners
by Neneithel
Summary: Being a canon pedant, I rarely write AUs. This was in response to a challenge asking what they would have done if Remington Steele had been exposed as a fake.


_**Steele Partners.**_

Steele called them both into the office. "Laura, to save you time and breath, I'll say it for you. I came into your life and messed up everything that ever mattered to you and now the agency is finished and we'll both be lucky if they only fine us into oblivion and throw us to the press. I'm sorry, if that helps at this juncture. Mildred, we had fun, didn't we? Horizons got broadened, you know now how good you are. You'll find a great job."

"That's it? You're leaving me behind?" said Mildred.

"Me too?" said Laura, "After all those ... "

"You still want to be with me, Laura? I still want to be with you, but my next suggestion will strike you as insane. Please jump over the part where you tell me how insane, because the clock is ticking and they'll be here in an hour with a lot of questions we can't answer and possibly a warrant for the arrest of Michael O'Leary."

"What about me?" said Mildred, "I'm in too, whatever it is!"

"Tell me your insane idea." said Laura, "Best I can come up with is telling the whole truth and hoping they're feeling merciful."

"We run away. We change our names and run. I have the address of an excellent forger. We could have good passports by tomorrow and the day after, we could be in France."

"Why France?"

"We like the food, we speak the language and there are plenty of ways for private detectives to make a living. Jim Carmody already has a lot of contacts there."

"Who?"

"Me." he said, "Jim and Tracy Carmody, private detectives?"

"Married?"

"Of course, married! Builds confidence. A respectable married couple."

"Your face is known in France."

"Yours isn't, so I go back to being elusive, always elsewhere."

"And I go back to being 'unknown associate'?"

"Not with your name on the letterhead next to mine."

"I have family here." she said.

He sat on the desk. "We'll write to them, explain the whole thing. They can write to me through a friend in London."

"You seem to have planned this exit rather well. How long have I been a part of it?"

"You make it sound like I was planning to walk out on you." he said.

"You're asking me to give up my life."

"I've turned your life to ashes, now I'm asking you to join me on the phoenix flight."

"We're going to Phoenix?" asked Mildred.

"No," said Steele, "Figure of speech. You don't want to come with us. You're not in any trouble. Tell 'em we duped you."

"And give up my career?" said Mildred.

"Another one awaits." said Steele, "A woman of your fine qualities will find opportunities everywhere."

"I found one. I'm taking it. We stick together. What do you think of the name Ruby Hart?"

Steele patted her shoulder, "Only ruby, Mildred? You're a diamond."

"I can't do it." said Laura, "I have to stay and face the music."

"They have music in France, too, and at least it's the kind you can dance to."

"Just begin again, from nothing? Go through all that again?"

He looked at his watch. "For once, neither of us has to start from nothing. We have each other. We also have Mildred and that cat of yours. He'd love France. We have a lot of experience and the cheek of the devil. The world is our mollusc. Think of it, Laura! You and me, riding along a beech at dawn ... "

"You're planning to get up for dawn?"

"We haven't slept yet, we spent the night listening to the sea."

Mildred smiled. "That's so romantic!"

Steele went on, "A new life, a new beginning. Whatever mistakes we made, washed away. The glittering sea, the silver moon, sunsets like a sudden smile or a slow dance of light, nights at the ballet or letting our love be the choreographer ... "

"Love, Mr Steele?"

"You know that I love you. You must know."

"You're asking a lot."

"I'm offering you the world."

"Are you offering me your heart?"

"You've had it for years." he said.

She kissed him. Mildred tried not to stare as the kiss became increasingly passionate.

"I hope that wasn't just a fond goodbye." said Steele when he was able to speak.

"This whole idea is, as you said, insane. Let's go, before my brain starts telling me why it can't work."

"I love you, Laura!" he said.

"Tracy, remember? Ruby, how does Carmody and Hart Investigations sound?"

Steele nodded. "That's perfect."

Laura looked around the office. "There's not a hope we'll pull this off."

"Sure we will!" said Mildred, "We're the best there is!"

"She's right." said Steele, "We have you, and you can do anything."

She looked into his eyes and smiled. "What the hell! Let's go and do to Europe what you've always done to me."

The End.


End file.
